This invention relates to improvements in manually operated, apron-type machines for making cigarettes. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved cutting tray for such cigarette making machines which produce a plurality of individual cigarettes simultaneously.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,740,433 of W. R. Brown et al., issued Apr. 3, 1956, describes an apron-type cigarette making machine of the general type under consideration. Essentially, the machine consists of a horizontal platform covered by a flexible apron fixed to and extending from the front of said platform to beyond the rear thereof where it is similarly fixed. A roller extends transversely from side to side across the machine beneath the apron and on top of the platform. The apron has sufficient slack in it to form a cigarette-forming trough behind the platform when the roller is in its rearward position, As the roller slides forward from this position, a moving bight is formed in the apron between the roller and the platform. Tobacco placed in the trough is compressed and rolled in this bight onto a piece of cigarette paper placed on the apron above the platform. The rolled "long" cigarette is then dropped from the bight at the front of the platform down a cutting slot onto a cutting surface where, by sliding the surface and blades rearwardly towards a downwardly and rearwardly curved projection from the lower portion of the front of the platform, a series of rearwardly slanted blades cut the rolled long cigarette into a number of cigarettes of a desired length. A single-bladed machine is described by Sledge et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,147 issued June 2, 1970.
Earlier versions of such cigarette makers required withdrawal of the long cigarette dropped rom the apron, placing this cigarette in a cutting block, and cutting this cigarette manually to the desired length. The later versions of the machine, described above, incorporated the cutting step as a further step in the operation of the machine, thereby avoiding the necessity of manually withdrawing and cutting the long cigarette produced.
One of the chief problems created with these later versions has been the insertion or removal of blades from the machine and (particularly where a series of blades has been used to obtain a greater number of cigarettes from the long cigarette), the proper alignment of the blades once inserted. In Brown et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,740,433, the blades were positioned by resting them vertically on ledges beneath the platform to achieve the desired slant, and positioning blocks on either side of each blade to fix the blades in place. Not only does such a construction require much time consuming manipulation by the operator to ensure that the blades are properly oriented and secured, it has proved itself to be a difficult and costly one to manufacture.
As a result, manufacturers have sought more economical and simpler means of orienting the blades on the cutting surface. In one present commercial version, the cutting surface consists of two spaced stamped sheet metal plates, each having a series of location tabs punched therefrom and bent into an upright position, a tab from one sheet cooperating with a tab from the other sheet to clamp therebetween, at a predetermined slant and orientation, a particular cutting blade. Dimples in one tab cooperate with openings in the other to more securely lock the blade in place. By sliding one sheet in relation to the other, cooperating tabs are separated to permit removal of the blades. Several difficulties are inherent with this type of cutting surface. In the first place removal and insertion of the blades for replacement purposes is awkward and difficult. The cutting surface is designed not to be removed from the machine as a whole and requires the steps of removal of a safety guard (positioned above the blades so that the blades are not exposed at the front of the machine), sliding one sheet sideways, in relation to the other to loosen the blades between the tabs, and finally careful removal by hand of each individual blade. The complexity of this operation, as well as the danger inherent in handling the actual blades, can be immediately appreciated. In addition, since the tabs holding the blades in this construction are made from stamped metal, there has been great difficulty in ensuring that the blades as inserted are properly oriented and aligned. Moreover there has been a consequent tendency for such blades, once positioned, to wander out of orientation or alignment. Therefore, to ensure proper and continued operation of the cutting surface has been difficult for the operator. In addition, in view of the fact that stamped metal has been used, it has been impossible to design a cutting surface which is adaptable for either king size or regular cigarettes: such a cutting surface would have required so many tabs that the metal sheets would have lost much of their strength.
In the cigarette making machine described and illustrated in Sledge's U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,147, only a single blade is held at the cutting surface, the machine being designed only for making two cigarettes at a cut. Thus, problems of alignment of the blade have no significance with this machine. In the construction described, the blade is held in position by screws. For the operator to change the blade, these screws must be untightened and retightened, and the operator must again handle the blade itself when removing it from or placing it in the cutting surface. Such a means of holding the blade in place would be unacceptable where an array of blades on the cutting surface is required since tightening and untightening the screws for each blade as well as obtaining uniform orientation and alignment of the blades would be extremely difficult.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved means of removing the blades from and inserting them into the cutting surface of a machine having a series of blades with reduced risk to the operator. It is a further object of the invention to provide a more economical, more reliable means of achieving uniform orientation and alignment of blades in such a cigarette making machine.